MLBTradeRumors: Angels Offseason Outlook

[ten ocho recon scout]

I still say quit pussyfooting, pull the trigger on the stanton/dee gordon trade, ignore the luxury tax and print the wild card tickets!

[totdprods]

Based off what I've been reading - which is still very early and vague even by Angels standards - I'm starting to temper expectations quite a bit on how the offseason will shake out. 

Here's a slightly different take:
1) Left Field: Bring Upton back - add an extra year on there and get it done. 
2) Third Base: Nab Asdrubal Cabrera for 3B or 2B - Mets are likely to decline his option or trade him on the cheap. 
3) Second Base: two options 1) eat the salary to pay less in prospects and get Dee Gordon from the Marlins. If it helps the cost significantly, go ahead and get Martin Prado as well. 2) If the cost is too high, make a move for a fairly small-name 2B like Greg Garcia. 
4) Last offensive piece: One last move for offense that will domino things around - stay in on Moustakas, Santana, guys like Morrison, Duda, Alonso, and Bruce. If one of those guys wind up coming at a bargain, do it and be done with Cron - deal for pitching or optionable 2B depth. If it's Moustakas, stash use Prado/Valbuena as a 1B platoon and shift Cabrera into a UT role replacing Pennington. 
5) Pitching: Throw any remaining money at retaining Petit and Norris and weigh all the depthy pitching options out there; Mikolas, Hutchinson, Chavez, Gonzalez, Tillman, Liriano, Kintzler, David Hernandez, etc. and hope and pray we've got enough to stay healthy and work with what we have. 

It's not the boldest path or ideal path, but falls a little closer in line with the usual Eppler MO. Doesn't tie up payroll or commit much to payroll, doesn't cost much in prospects. 

2B Gordon, RF Calhoun, CF Trout, LF Upton, DH Pujols, 1B Santana/Duda/Bruce/LoMo, SS Simmons, 3B Cabrera,  C Maldonado
Bench: Valbuena (RHP killer), Prado (LHP killer), Perez, 4th OF (a true SB threat) - no need for a UT IF who can play SS, you can use Cabrera

Some three year averages - best part is all non-Angels are left-handed/switch-hitters.
First base...
Carlos Santana: 155 games, .250/.362/.450/.813, 113 OPS+, 32 doubles, 25 home runs, 98 walks, 105 strikeouts, 2.5 WAR
Jay Bruce: 150 games, .243/.309/.482/.791, OPS+ 108, 30 doubles, 32 home runs, 53 walks, 137 strikeouts, 1.4 WAR
Lucas Duda: 103 games, .231/.333/.479/.812, 119 OPS+, 23 doubles, 21 home runs, 47 walks, 103 strikeouts, 1.4 WAR
Logan Morrison: 134 games, .237/.327/.443/.769, 111 OPS+, 18 doubles, 23 home runs, 55 walks, 106 strikeouts, 1.3 WAR
C.J. Cron: 110 games, .263/.311/.448/.759, 107 OPS+, 19 doubles, 16 home runs, 21 walks, 84 strikeouts, 1.0 WAR
Third base...
Mike Moustakas: 104 games, .275/.329/.496/.824, 117 OPS+, 21 doubles, 22 home runs, 29 walks, 61 strikeouts, 2.3 WAR
Yunel Escobar: 120 games, .300/.357/.402/.759, 108 OPS+, 24 doubles, 7 home runs, 38 walks, 63 strikeouts, 1.3 WAR
Asdrubal Cabrera: 140 games, .275/.334/.447/.780, OPS+ of 110, 30 doubles, 17 home runs, 41 walks, 98 strikeouts 1.8 WAR
Martin Prado: 106 games, .292/.342/.401/.743, OPS+ of 104, 23 doubles, 6 home runs, 31 walks, 53 strikeouts, 2.4 WAR
Second base...
Dee Gordon: 127 games, .309/.340/.384/.729, 99 OPS+, 17 doubles, 8 triples, 2 home runs, 49 stolen bases, 23 walks, 80 strikeouts, 2.9 WAR
Greg Garcia: 94 games, .260/.373/.355/.727, 97 OPS+, 8 doubles, 2 home runs, 28 walks, 42 strikeouts, 1.1 WAR
LAA '17 2B: 162 games, .206/.274/.327/.601, 23 doubles, 14 home runs, 8 stolen bases, 45 walks, 165 strikeouts

Cabrera feels like a nice Escobar redux. Comparable offense with a different skill set, switch hitter, more versatility. 

Any of those first baseman should produce at least at a Cron level and have had recent seasons that blow away anything Cron has reached. At least there'd be some precedent for something better. Moustakas doesn't have crazy OBP that Eppler seeks, but he doesn't strike out much, but he really would need to come at a bargain...the 5/$75-90m stuff is crazy. 
 

[Tank]

13 hours ago, Calzone said:

Tank I don’t put other posters down for their opinions. I don’t call people out as being stupid because they have a different point of view. I’m not disrespectful to anyone here and when I’m wrong I admit it. There are some people you meet in this world that will never admit they can sometimes be wrong. I’m not one of them. I wanted the Angels to sign Fielder and I was wrong. See, that was easy.

I may be wrong about Upton but let’s see how it plays out before calling it my narrative. I have zero control over what the Angels do and they could give a hoot about my opinion or anybody else’s. 

my issue with you is how you repeat the same message in so very, very many threads.

you don't like sosh or pujols and you have concerns about upton. Message received! Why post it again and again and again in multiple threads? Time to mix in to your dialogue discussion of other things once in a while - diversify, man, diversify.

[Ohtaniland]

3 minutes ago, Tank said:

my issue with you is how you repeat the same message in so very, very many threads.

you don't like sosh or pujols and you have concerns about upton. Message received! Why post it again and again and again in multiple threads? Time to mix in to your dialogue discussion of other things once in a while - diversify, man, diversify.

Tank when we were looking to replace Reagins, I voted for you. But I agree with what you’re saying.

 

[Tank]

fair enough, claude.

and thank you for your support.